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I leased a horse the day before my scheduled ACL surgery. Had someone sub-leasing him (approved by owner, of course). Maybe 4 weeks after surgery, this lady would ride him to make sure he was quiet, then I would hobble to the mounting block and she helped me get on. I took MINUTES to dismount, gingerly lowering myself down his side.

Turns out this horse had a BAD, BAD spook and I should not have been on him. He'd hurt a lot of riders. BUT he was actually super well behaved while I was healing. He even learned to stop when I would lean at the canter (I could only do a few strides).

It wasn't until I was done with PT that he started dropping me!!

AND... I'm currently unemployed and my horses want for NOTHING. I've been diligent about saving $ so they would not be at risk.

Fell off, broke my sternum in the process and surely got a concussion from whiplash... got up, walked back to the ingate, got back on, and proceeded to jump several 1.40m oxers in the schooling ring to make sure I didn't think the coked-up-lemur style of finding a distance was correct.

Never got either the sternum or the concussion diagnosed by a doctor, but they were both pretty obvious - lots of swelling, bruising, and a grinding sound from the sternum (plus it would cave slightly if I pushed on it hard enough in the right spot) and classic concussion symptoms.

My car broke down, I needed to get feed out to my horse at the barn. Just before Christmas I walked carrying a 50# bag of feed almost 15 miles. I didn't even get offered a ride till about 3 miles before I got there.

I've broken one (left fifth) and I cannot comprehend how you got on a horse. Or put any weight on it for that matter.

I've remounted and jumped with a separated AC joint and with bruised ribs and a severely sprained wrist (which is still NQR two months after)

So nothing too spectacular.

With exceptional pain--I have a high pain tolerance, but I sweated even in the coolest AC because of how much it could hurt after I rode. Also I ended up with small tears in right psoas muscle (think hip flexor) down the road from how much weight I bore on my right side to compensate (required PT and cortisone injections to manage pain and regain full function), and it took my entire college career to learn how to ride with equal weight distributed on both sides.

In some ways, the riding boot actually saved my broken toes/metatarsals because it compressed them and forced them to stick together as opposed to bending and deforming. The riding and running definitely did not help, though.

Fell off, broke my sternum in the process and surely got a concussion from whiplash... got up, walked back to the ingate, got back on, and proceeded to jump several 1.40m oxers in the schooling ring to make sure I didn't think the coked-up-lemur style of finding a distance was correct.

Never got either the sternum or the concussion diagnosed by a doctor, but they were both pretty obvious - lots of swelling, bruising, and a grinding sound from the sternum (plus it would cave slightly if I pushed on it hard enough in the right spot) and classic concussion symptoms.

In retrospect, I wonder what I was thinking...

I've decided adrenaline goes a long way in masking common sense as well as pain.

Broke the left side of my foot and refused to go to the doctor b/c I had a big finals coming up. Could only wear crocks until it was time to show, had to borrow a tall boot that was 3 sizes bigger so it would fit over my foot. Totally worth it, ended up grand champion childrens and best child rider on a horse. Went to doctor right after and confirmed the now-not-fixable break and my bone now sits on a vein and my foot turns purple on occasion.

Had major surgery on my nose and 4 days later begged one of the grooms to give me a pony back ride on my mare just so I could sit on a horse (cast and bandages still on).

Had a bad riding accident a few years ago, tore a major ligament in my ankle and have 2 bone chips in my joint. Literally couldn't walk for a month, but eventually was able to get on and ride if i mounted and dismounted from a very tall mounting block and didn't put my foot in a stirrup. Even showed w/o one stirrup. That ended up being the worst choice I ever made b/c I now have lifelong problems including an impending surgery

Got kicked by my horse while lunging an hour before the show, my knuckle was four times it's regular size! Sucked it up and with a combination of vet wrap and duct tape stuffed it into my glove and showed. I think my horse made up for it by being a saint for the rest of the day.

When I was on the IHSA team in college, I rode with pneumonia, in 20 degree weather. They needed me because I was the only one on our team that could show in my division.

I broke my collar bone and had surgery to put it back together with a titanium plate and screws and the doctor told me I could ride so long as it didn't hurt too bad. That was a seriously bad decision on his part. I was riding my horse 2 days out of surgery. At 5 days out of surgery, I was out trying greenies for a friend to buy.

I was helping a friend with a very difficult WB mare that had not been handled until age 5. The mare got scared and double barrel kicked me in the chest, knocked me down and gave me one of the worst cases of whiplash the doctor had ever seen. I got a hematoma from it and didn't go to the doctor about it. I was told by friends in the medical field that was a bad. Apparently the hematoma can break down and blood clots can enter your veins and cause heart attacks and strokes... oops.

I fell off my horse onto slate and broke 4 ribs and did some other minor damage. After an hour of rest, cleaned the entire barn, mucked all the paddocks, climbed into the loft to drop hay, and dumped/refilled water buckets for 18 horses. Because no one else was around to do it. I started riding again a week later.

I had a horse that liked to flip over whenever the mood struck him. He did this once too close to a fence and proceeded to roll over me so he could get up. He crushed my right knee in the process. I still got back on him and rode, then rode my semi-retired mare because she had been getting pushed aside too often. Brought all the horses in and did night chores. (I then had to call a friend to come get me because my knee hurt too bad to drive.) I did return for night check btw.

Got back on the same horse as above after he dumped me on my head and flattened my helmet on one side. I had a severe concussion and started to drift in and out of consciousness when I got back on. I still finished my ride though. LOL

Got back on my current horse when he dumped me and I fractured my tail bone. I proceeded to get back on him, but when I tried to trot I almost passed out from the pain and got off. LOL He was just started under saddle and I didn't want him to think he could get out of work by dumping me. I should note here that it actually had the opposite effect, he will do just about anything, include sacrificing himself to keep me from falling off. LMAO Love this horse...

I have gone out and done night checks, in every manner of weather. I never miss a day to atleast stop in and check my horses, no matter how sick, injured, or busy I am. Have spent my fair share of nights sleeping in the barn or my car and checking them every hour when they are seriously ill. And ridden in all temps because we can not afford a setback. LOL

But the craziest thing I have ever done for my horse is spending $1000.00 a month on board and care, $5000.00 on a custom saddle, $300.00 on a custom sized girth, $2200.00 for an MRI, and soon $2500.00 for stem cell therapy for a $2500.00 horse, who as of yet has never shown. All because he has completely stolen my heart and gives me hugs and kisses. Now that is crazy... I'm such a sucker... (Insert besotted sigh)

Spent my high school graduation money on a second horse just before starting college.

Worked 3 jobs while on a full class schedule to support both horses and graduate a year early with my BA degree. Still managed to ride during this time too...more then ever actually. How I didn't drop from exhaustion I'll never know.

Riding down a line to a 3'+ oxer my mare who never stopped at anything for some reason second guessed our distance. Which I'm told was perfect so we think she wasn't expecting the oxer or something. When she did a stutter step my helmet came down over my eye and I whacked my head of her neck. Broke my nose and knocked me out cold. Came too, stopped the bleeding, got back on and rode to it again and finished the lesson. Showed the next weekend with 2 black eyes.

I've decided adrenaline goes a long way in masking common sense as well as pain.

THIS.

I completely forgot I broke several toes last May. Unloading a pony who happened to be my arch nemesis, and she crushed several of my toes. I remember it was horifically painful - and then I was in charge of rangling ponies and pony-kids and forgot about it. Rode in one division, and I remember feeling some twinge of pain when I dismounted, and then got caught up in show-day craziness. By the time I got back to my house that night and took off my boot, I was shocked to see my slightly swollen and completely bruised foot.

Well currently I'm riding with two labral tears in my hips, labral tears in my shoulders and a herniated disk in my back..

I was body clipping a pony once, and he head butted me in the face. Almost passed out, but then went to the bathroom to see blood gushing everywhere from my lip. Put water in my mouth to swish around and it all came out BELOW MY LIP. I had a nice large hole in my face from where my teeth went though upon impact from the pony's head. No one was there so I finished with the pony, put him up and drove home.. My parents were horrified when I walked through the door and off to the emergency room I went.

I was really sick when I was younger and once I got out of the hospital and was allowed to go back to riding I was still about 30 pounds under weight, so the doctor said no jumping. Yeah, I lied to my trainer and neglected to tell her that I wasn't allowed to jump haha

Man y'all are tough and maybe more than a bit crazy . Thankfully I don't come off very often. I did continue to ride after I partially tore my mcl after a horse went down on top of me but only because it really didn't hurt that much. Some of y'all truly have amazing tolerances for pain.

The craziest thing I've done in terms of safety was riding with mono when my spleen was so enlarged that anyone could palpate my stomach and know something was really off. Even at the time I knew it was stupid since I was exercising hot hunt horses but I didn't have any other way to pay board and couldn't afford to take 6 weeks off work at the time. Thankfully I stayed attached to all of my rides and my mono cleared up in a few weeks.

The craziest thing I've done in terms of finances was take back a mare I had sold when the buyer stopped paying installments and I found her listed as a giveaway on sales site. I was not in the place to take her back but the idea of her ending up gosh knows where was not an option. Loving her is the definition of crazy but she stole my heart a long time ago.

Broke my eye socket in 2 places in a riding accident. Wanted to ride the same day I had my surgery but was too nauseous. Wound up riding the next day. Showed in a major show a month to the day later. 0 depth perception. Luckily it was a flat class. Talk about trusting your horse. Also sprained one ankle and broke the other turning out horses. Stepped down wrong coming out of one of the stalls into the run and down I went. Try taking care of 13 horses with one leg in a boot and the other wrapped in an ace bandage and vet wrap.

I've also ridden with broken arms, a broken hand, broken ankles, a sprained knee (used the bed of a truck to mount and dismount) etc.

Not as crazy as most of you, but when I was 13, I was able to successfully hold off going to the hospital for several hours (chills, severe headaches, throwing up, not keeping anything down) to watch XC on WEG for what we later found to be a major CSF leak-though at first it was thought to be a staph infection, a code was called while I was at the hospital drifting in and out of concoiusness later the same day.

I also awoke from surgery (that caused incident #1) to be telling my mom that the WEG starts tomorrow, repeated every five minutes. Even after a 7-hour spine surgery, I had my priorities straight

Hmmmm. While I did some not so smart things in my youth, I think this year takes the cake.

Lost 150lbs, and after 8 years off from horses talked Hubby into letting me lease a horse. Within 60 days I'd bought an OTTB, that was August, just sold her as a child's hunter, and just got my second OTTB just 2 weeks ago. . . I promised my husband I was just going to have a little hobby again, and somehow it's taken over our lives!